Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Annual Symposium

Each year, in conjunction with the ASSA Annual General Meeting, the Academy hosts its major event, the Annual Symposium. The Symposium is a public forum on a topic suggested and developed by Fellows. It is a full day event followed immediately by the Academy's Cunningham Lecture and an Academy dinner. The Symposium is convened by one or more Fellows and provides a program of speakers and panel discussion that explore an important concern of the social sciences.

2010
Web page Family Fortunes and the Global Financial Crisis.  
The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 (GFC) has been described as the 'worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s'. This crisis presents a rare opportunity for the social sciences to directly study the effects of the business cycle on the relationship between the market, family households and the well-being of children. The 2010 Symposium will examine how economic downturns affect income and household debt, job quality, family life and public health, and also those industries, occupations and subpopulations most affected.   Registration now open.
2009
Web page Space and place matter.  
The ASSA Symposium 2009 will show-case how ARCRNSISS researchers are using spatially integrated social science (SISS) methods to address issues of national public policy significance in contemporary Australia and which are likely to become increasingly important as a result of the fall-out from the current global financial crisis. That includes social inclusion and disadvantage (particularly affecting youth and older people), employment vulnerability, and managing the rural heartlands. ARCRNSISS researchers will also demonstrate the application of SISS approaches to address issues to do with crime and the development of our big cities and the provision of public services.
2008
Web page Fostering creativity and innovation.
Creative and innovative solutions are required for the new social, economic and environmental challenges we face at the national and global levels. The 2008 symposium will focus on what the social sciences can contribute to the broader debate about how Australia can become more creative and innovative. Contributions from the sciences, technology and the humanities will also be examined.
2007
Web page Power, people, water: urban water services and human behaviour in Australia.
This symposium is designed on the understanding that there are annual and seasonal variations in demand for and supply of water services in urban areas and is designed to seek a better understanding of the management of water services in times of scarcity as well as comparative water-affluence.
2006
Web page Australians on the move: internal migration in Australia.
This symposium addresses such important issues as the continued growth of Australia's largest cities, the depopulation of inland Australia, the rapid growth of coastal settlements, the movements of Indigenous people, the movements of the young and the old, of women and men, of international immigrants to Australia.
2005
Web page Ideas and influence.
The 2005 symposium, Ideas and Influence, dealt with the relations between research, the facilitation of informed public opinion and the policy community, and intended to show that expert knowledge can shape better futures.
2004
Web page Government as risk manager.
The 2004 symposium, Government as Risk Manager, had the goal of exploring the role of, and potential for, a financial instrument known as income contingent loans (ICL) to address a range of social and economic problems.
2003
Web page Youth in transition.
ASSA Symposium 2003, held in conjunction with the Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC) 15th Biennial General Conference, will bring together social scientists from a range of countries and disciplines - including psychologists, sociologists, demographers, anthropologists, economists, and social geographers
2002
Web page Building a better future for our children.
The 2002 ASSA Symposium focuses on the health and well-being of the children of Australia. Recent studies from Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere heighten awareness of the importance of the early years of human development and specifically the provision by parents, families and society for the younger generations.
2001
Web page Joint Academies Symposium.
In the second term of the Howard government there are signs that Australia's political elite is undecided about which of these contrasting perspectives it should adhere to in rhetoric and in policies.